The lawyer representing victims of press intrusion at the Leveson inquiry, including the parents of Milly Dowler and Madeleine McCann, has said that the public want a clean break with the past and deserve a new, independent press regulator.

David Sherborne, counsel for about 50 victims also including Christopher Jefferies, told the inquiry on Tuesday morning that arguments put forward by newspapers that statutory regulation would lead to interference by politicians or have a "chilling effect" on investigative journalism were "specious".

"We say there should be an entirely new regime, a clean break not just in name but in substance from everything that has come before and failed," said Sherborne, delivering his closing statement on the final day of Leveson inquiry witness hearings.

He added that the new press regulator should not involve working editors adjudicating on complaints.

"There should be separate mechanisms for rule-making, for investigations, including investigations of the regulator's own motion, and most importantly for adjudications. A body of independent adjudicators should rule upon complaints as to media conduct and serving editors should have no role in that," Sherborne said.

"The public wants more objective standards and the starting point for that is an independent statute-backed regulator, which is created for the public and is not run by serving editors and one which can hold this enormously influential body to account, as they hold us to account in turn."

Jonathan Caplan QC, counsel for Daily Mail publisher Associated Newspapers, opened his closing statement by warning Lord Justice Leveson that he should not jeopardise the 19,000 jobs in British newspapers when he comes to making his recommendations to the government on the future of press regulation in the autumn.

Caplan said the Press Complaints Commission "had been found wanting", but urged Leveson against "reading the last rites on the industry which sees circulations falling year after year", with provincial newspapers closing and the rise and rise of global internet news and social media.

He also warned Leveson that he should not drive publishers out of the UK by making it impossible to operate, telling him some could move their internet operations abroad.

"Whatever recommendations your inquiry makes for future regulation, great care, we suggest, will need to be taken to ensure that it does not jeopardise the 19,000 jobs still remaining in British newspaper journalism or drive publishers in the great growth area of the internet to move their operations to another jurisdiction."

Caplan said Ofcom chief executive Ed Richards, who argued that serving editors should not be on the new PCC, was wrong.

If editors were not involved in the new regulatory body that replaces the PCC they would mount legal challenges at every opportunity, he added.

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